Wednesday, May 14, 2008

In honor of a talk I attended at UCLA on May 15 by Jean Twenge, on changes in college students' personality traits and attitudes over time, I've written the following song. Dr. Twenge -- Twen-GEE, with the "g" pronounced as in "gift" -- has pioneered the technique of cross-temporal meta-analysis. If one wants to examine aggregate changes in a personality trait or attitude in some societal group over periods of many years, one can consult the published literature. If the same type of sample (e.g., college students) and the same measurement instrument have been used to assess a given trait in articles spanning many years, then one could argue that temporal mean differences on the trait are due to generational changes.

Trzesniewski, K.H., Donnellan, M.B., & Robins, R.W. (2008). Do today's young people really think they are so extraordinary? An examination of secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement. Psychological Science, 19, 181–188.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kurt Lewin, who died in 1947 at the age of 56, is characterized in a Wikipedia entry as:

...one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology. Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first researchers to study group dynamics and organizational development.

I suspect that most social psychologists would consider themselves Lewinians, at least in the broad sense of aligning themselves with the following basic Lewinian themes: the conceptualization of behavior as a function of the person and the environment, the effects of situations and forces in our "fields," and the importance of cognitive representations.

In contrast to the (presumably) widespread acceptance that Lewin's general ideas would receive today in social psychology and related disciplines, the number of current scholars specializing in the finer points of Lewinian theory, such as the life space, would appear to be much smaller. The latter researchers have, however, created a number of documents about Lewin and his ideas, from which I provide some additional readings (below).

Most people seem to pronounce Lewin, “Lu-win.” I first learned what I believe is the German pronunciation, “Le-veen.” When I first got to graduate school at the University of Michigan, based on my pronunciation, one of the professors told me that I must have gotten my undergraduate instruction in social psych from an “old school” professor. Indeed I did, from the late Hal Gerard at UCLA.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Among the classic psychological theories of aggression is the Frustration-Aggression Theory of Dollard, Miller, and colleagues from 1939. The theory has been debated and reformulated over the years, and still remains well-known in the field. As van der Dennen summarizes in this web document:

As to the principal hypothesis, Dollard et al. (1939) posited “that the occurrence of aggressive behavior always presupposes the existence of frustration and, contrariwise, that the existence of frustration always leads to some form of aggression”.

It is the seemingly automatic association between frustration and aggression (note the uses of the word "always" in the quote above), posited in the theory's original version, which I seized upon in stating that the theory may have been "a little extreme."

Thursday, January 17, 2008

At the recent Social Psychologists in Texas (SPIT) conference (see entry below), I was talking to some people when the topic of dyadic analysis came up. If a researcher is studying, for example, romantic partners or college roommates, special kinds of statistical analyses are required. I vowed on the spot to write a song about dyadic analysis, and the present entry contains the fruits of my work.

While thinking on-and-off about ideas for the song over the past week, I heard the Beatles' song "Penny Lane" on the radio. I then realized that by using a last-name-first format, "Kenny, Dave," would be a good fit. With that inspiration, I give you the song...

Kenny, Dave (The Dyadic Statistics Guy)
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Penny Lane,” Lennon/McCartney)

So much psychology, studies individuals,
But in pairs, so much of social life occurs,
Duos can be analyzed, for sure,
With the right approach,

Kenny, Dave, pioneered dyadic analysis,
So that models were, properly specified,
And all the assumptions, satisfied,
It gave him much pride,
All in stride,

Kenny, Dave, the dyadic, statistics guy,
A technique for those, who aren’t shy,
Come on, give it a try,

One must ascertain, if partners are exchangeable,
And check for variance, between and within,
The complexity, is setting in,
Oh the road you pave, Kenny, Dave,

(Interlude)

Kenny, Dave, the dyadic, statistics guy,
A technique for those, who aren’t shy,
Come on, give it a try…

What's called the "APIM," is a model, of dyadic paths,
Actor effects, within a person, straightaway,
And that's not all, this type of model does,
There is more in play,

You can draw, an arrow, from one person's predictor,
Right to the other's, dependent var-i-a-ble,
The name for, this new kind, of pathway,
Is "partner effect,"
That's correct!

Kenny, Dave, the dyadic, statistics guy,
A technique for those, who aren’t shy,
Come on, give it a try…

Kenny, Dave, the dyadic, statistics guy,
A technique for those, who aren’t shy,
Come on, give it a try…

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The social psych group at my home institution, Texas Tech University, will be this year's host of the annual Social Psychologists in Texas (SPIT) conference. Dick McGlynn, Texas Tech's lead organizer of the meeting, was kind enough to put me (an honorary social psychologist based in human development and family studies) on the schedule for a musical tribute to SPIT, which I will present at the closing session this upcoming Saturday. The flavor of SPIT meetings is conveyed in this sporadically updated SPIT website.

I've written lyrics for four SPIT-specific songs, as shown below. Two are general songs about the conference, whereas the other two are dedicated to visiting speakers. One of the speakers is James "Jamie" Pennebaker from the University of Texas-Austin, who I will introduce via song. He is well-known for two decades of research on how expressing one's feelings during times of stress can improve health. [2015 Update: One of Pennebaker's students, Molly Ireland, has been at Texas Tech the past couple of years.] The other visitor fulfills a SPIT tradition, that of bringing back a former Texas-based social psychologist who has moved elsewhere. Our "boomerang" speaker is Jeff Simpson, who a few years ago left Texas A&M to go back to his graduate-school alma mater, the University of Minnesota. Here are the songs...

Hope You Enjoyed SPIT!
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” Irving Berlin)

Here in Lubbock, you have seen,
What social psychology,
In the Lone Star State’s, about,
The best, were here, with no doubt,

A chance to sit,
For presentations, tightly knit,
And observations, full of wit,
Hope you enjoyed SPIT!

And, in a bit,
We will look for, who shows the grit,
To win the award, for spi-rit,
Hope you enjoyed SPIT!

Darcy, Dick, Jeff, Clyde, and other Tech-ies,
Sought to provide a program, that did please,
They did, their best,

Before you split,
I’ve written up a, music skit,
We hope our meeting, was a hit…
Hope you enjoyed SPIT!

Dr. Pennebaker
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Please Mr. Postman;” writing credited to various combinations of Dobbins, Garrett, Holland, Bateman, and Gorman; popularized by the Marvelettes and the Beatles)

Many people, endure great stress (oh yeah),
What’s key are feelings, these you must express,
(Please, please, Dr. Pennebaker)
So think about, why you’re so troubled (oh yeah),
Let those thoughts, burst out of their bubble,

Go ahead, says Dr. P.,
You need to let your, feelings run free,
Once you manage, to cross that line,
Only then, will you start to feel fine,

Dig deep down, says Dr. Pennebaker,
So-oh-oh complee-eet-ly,
At first, it may be, tough to disclose,
But then it comes, so much more easily,